The Closer Report: June 29, 2009

Saves: 7

Save Opportunities: 7

Several interesting saves tonight and Fuentes nails his 22nd.
By Todd Farino, www.thecloserreport.com

There was allot of interesting saves today starting with Randy Choate getting back into the mix of saves for the Tampa Bay Rays. He has been lights out all year, but Joe Madden has insisted on going with J.P. Howell. Tonight was only different because Howell has pitched quite a bit over the last few days and was getting a well deserved rest. I like how Choate has been pitching all season and assuming the Rays don't try to trade for another closer, Choate should get a chance. He has a 1.54 ERA and a tiny 0.86 WHIP. He also has 12 strikeouts in 11.2 innings with four saves in the book. I'm not going to tell you to pick him up because Madden seems content to go with Howell, but if Howell messes up at all, Choate will get the next chance.

Leo Nunez got his first save since Matt Lindstrom went on the DL. He bailed out Dan Meyers and got the save by getting just one out and it was a one pitch save. Hopefully this is the sign that Nunez is now ready to close. The Marlins had been waiting for his ankle to heal before handing him the closer duties. Hopefully, today showed them that Nunez is ready to close. Of course it was one pitch.

Another bailout occurred, but this time the man was Jonathan Papelbon. He bailed out Ramon Ramirez, who gave up a hit and then walked a batter with two outs. This setup Matt Weiters to hit a gaming changing 3-run home run and the Orioles would still be losing. Francona wanted none of that excitement for Oriole fans, so he crushed Ramirez's ego and brought in Papelbon who quickly got the fly ball. His save was a three pitch save.

It doesn't stop there, here is another interesting save. Trevor Hoffman got a one pitch save, but managed to get two outs. How is that for absolute efficiency? It all started with Carlos Villanueva imploding in the ninth inning and gave up three runs on five hits. Included in that was a 2-run bomb to Gary Sheffield and he left with two runners on. In came Hoffman, and on one pitch got Brian Schneider to ground into a tailor-made double play.

Brain Fuentes nailed his league leading 22nd save pitching a perfect inning over their division rival Texas Rangers. He only needed ten pitches to dispatch the aggressive swinging Rangers and get the 5-2 save.

Another outstanding performance from Joakim Soria. He got his tenth save of the season by striking out the side against the Twins. Soria is definitely back and is looking sharper than he has all season.

Other Appearances:
Kevin Gregg (13) - Pitched a perfect inning for the save. Marmol also pitched very well today.

Jonathan Broxton - Pitched an awesome inning in a tie game. He struck out the side and threw 13 strikeouts. He threw 19 pitches all together.

Chris Perez - Got bombed by the White Sox with four runs. Welcome to the American League!